The Vesak celebration in Sri Lanka is a national affair, with almost every city, village and community getting involved. Despite many fault lines and rips in the fabric of being ‘Sri Lankan’, the New Year celebrations in April and the subsequent Vesak week in May, brought Sri Lankans out in numbers. This year, it was observed that many of the urban poor were on the streets with their families to see the colourful sights of Vesak pandols and visit the numerous ‘dansal’. 

While the Government and the Opposition bask in the glory of the ‘victories’ they have achieved at the recent Local Government Elections, Sri Lanka’s poor continue to suffer.

Some of them, who The Daily Morning spoke to, lamented about the cost of living remaining high.  “We did what we could for Avurudu, it wasn’t much, but we tried to give our children some moments of laughter and happiness. We didn’t get to travel to our villages to see our parents, so the children have no holiday with their grandparents, we simply can’t afford the travel cost for four. By the end of April, we were again penniless, surviving May will be that much harder. So, when Vesak week came, we used this opportunity to give the children an outing, and the ‘dansal’ fed us all well. This way we don’t have to worry about our meals today and our little ones are entertained. Little do they know, we are struggling to figure out how to survive next week. Life never becomes easier for people like us,” Raju, a 46-year-old father of three who is employed at a state institution as a sanitation worker, told The Daily Morning. Raju is one of hundreds of thousands of those who are in a similar plight. 

The economic crisis which Sri Lanka is navigating has aggravated the strain felt by many Sri Lankans, especially the urban poor by stagnating incomes coupled with increasing living costs. The Department of Census and Statistics has revealed that an individual requires a minimum of Rs. 16,318 per month (as of February) to meet their basic needs. Further, the highest cost of meeting basic needs was recorded at Rs. 17,599 in the Colombo District, while the lowest cost was in the Monaragala District at Rs. 15,603. This indicates an over-two-fold increase in the minimum monthly expenditure required by an individual, given that the amount stood at Rs. 6,966 in 2019. At the time, the highest cost of meeting basic needs was also recorded in the Colombo District at Rs. 7,513, while the lowest was similarly in the Monaragala District at Rs. 6,661.

Economists have noted that precise statistics on an increase in expenditure were unavailable due to the lack of an updated Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). They have pointed out that it was reasonable to expect the reality of a situation where wellbeing has gone down since 2019, although it may have picked up with the economic recovery. “Families typically spend the most on food, with poorer families spending a larger proportion of their budget on food. Next would come education, health, transport, and utilities, which are basically essentials. Current spending affects spending priorities differently depending on where you are in the income distribution,” an economist with the University of Peradeniya said.

The World Bank, in its Sri Lanka Development Update for April, notes that there is elevated poverty and food insecurity due to household incomes being well below pre-crisis levels. This has also led to increased vulnerability, with a third of Sri Lankans living in poverty or one shock away from falling back into it. Similarly, malnutrition increased in 2024, which poses concerns over potential long-term impacts on human capital formation and intergenerational poverty transmission. Food prices more than doubled between 2021 and 2024 as well, leading to households changing their diets and reducing the consumption of nutritious food.

As such, many Sri Lankans who live in our urban centres and fuel our economy are today undergoing a difficult period with no end in sight. While politics and debate is important for a healthy democracy, ensuring that society's most vulnerable segments don’t fall through the cracks is everyone’s responsibility.